The British foreign minister has just made a speech about defending democracy. You can read it all here. Except that it rings a bit hollow, because democracy is barely practised in British society. Britain runs instead on a kind of mediated patronage that would be familiar to Wolsey, Walpole or Wellington.

Crown authority is delegated via official appointments to everything from the House of Lords to the kinds of boards you can see advertised here.

Ask yourself this. If you wanted to achieve any kind of change involving government would you organise yourself through our democratic system or would you seek to invoke patronage? I know what I would do.

Is the same foreign minister who approvingly quotes Tocqueville (“the strength of free peoples resides in the local community. Local institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they put it within the people’s reach; they teach people to appreciate its peaceful enjoyment and accustom them to make use of it.”) the kind of politician who might try to recruit lawyer friends over dinner to occupy safe seats in the Commons?

At least, in the days of rotten boroughs, great lords were obliged to get their electorates drunk.

The British system of government has at least co-opted dissent. Its tent is big enough for almost everyone who wants to piss out. But this enervated political culture, which may serve us adequately, does not encourage or reward contested participation, which is at the heart of democracy.

So much of British journalism is an attempt to crawl to an imagined centre, and find the innermost circle of power. That journey is itself a co-opting process. Oh well…